Expanding your business, naked people and going to the gym (lunch, obviously)

For 35 years I’ve wondered how my life would have panned out if I’d accepted my place at art college. I can’t even remember now with any degree of full clarity why I chose to turn it down and embark on A levels instead. I didn’t even finish those… Meeting Winston and Nicky lead to my job in Hamleys and, after all, why would any 17-year-old choose to do anything more creative than sell balloons?! I met Marion there and the rest is history, but I always hankered a bit over the lost world of art.

For ages I’ve talked about joining an art class, so a chance meeting with Ed, a tall, very handsome man with a beard and a bobble hat who runs a life drawing group, set me zooming off along a new path – albeit a slightly bumpy, uneven one with overgrown brambles to battle through. But battle through I did, and my first week’s collection of sketches was, I believe, fairly acceptable for a beginner.

My first ever three-minute sketch of someone’s bottom!

I posted a selection on Facebook after the class, a move which prompted a lot of laughter – as well as a fair few emails and texts from people who are, apparently, happy to model for me during my practice period. Having naked friends and clients posing on my sofa is perhaps not the most appropriate thing for a Tuesday morning though, so I might have to rethink that one…

Getting into a completely arty mood, we had Sunday brunch at Somerset House then wandered around the beautiful Courtauld Gallery for a couple of hours. We also spent an evening watching reruns of Portrait Painter of the year to give me some style inspiration. It’s distracted somewhat from poetry writing and I’m feeling very enthusiastic about sketching… So, if you’d like a portrait hand drawn by me in 3B grey pencil, distorting your main features, elongating and squidging up all the wrong bits and generally making you look fairly abstract, please do get in touch. (We’ll pretend it was meant to be like that!)

Back to business, I had a meeting this week with one of my favourite clients – at the David Lloyd gym! While some of you might think that sounds like a fun morning, the thought of a workout does not inspire me to get out my to-do list and quickly scribble it on. The lunch, however, certainly was fun, as was the meeting itself.

It’s so nice to see clients branching out, expanding their business offering and making a success of whatever they do. And of course it’s lovely when they come back to me with repeat business for their newly branded company.

Beautiful staircase at the Courtauld Gallery

The Courtauld Gallery houses the famous painting of Van Gogh with his head bandaged after he hacked off his ear in a temper. It’s one of many recognisable artworks that London’s so lucky to have, and the one that always gets a little Don McLean singing in my (unmutilated) ear. “Now I understand what you tried to say to me, and how you suffered for your sanity – and how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how; perhaps they’ll listen now.”

If you sometimes feel like your business is driving you insane and no-one’s listening, talk to me about a new approach. Maybe it’s time to structure your social media in a new way… let’s chat here: @WeekendWitch.

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Renée is an amazing writer who is the author of some fantastic blogs… very informal and conversational, she talks TO the reader rather than at them. She uses a lot of humour, she doesn't take herself too seriously and isn't scared to laugh at herself; a bit of naughtiness included too for added spice(!)… I asked Renee to help me understand SEO and how to improve my site. We had a one to one session in which she explained in detail everything I needed to know. Her explanation was clear and fully understandable, which was great for me as I had no previous knowledge of SEO or social marketing. I left our meeting confident of what I needed to do in order to boost my site, which is exactly what I wanted to gain from the session... Renée is the most friendly and professional person I have ever worked with. She is an asset to any company and brings a new insight into training. I would strongly recommend Renée to any company wishing to grow and to improve staff performance… Renee is the ultimate networker and is happy to share her contacts for the benefit of others. She is very knowledgeable and has a great network of contacts... Renée creates fantastic web content and writes our twice-weekly blog. Being results-driven, she has succeeded in increasing traffic referrals to our website and raising us swiftly through Google rankings. She also runs our social media marketing campaigns effectively and handles all related staff training in a relaxed and lively manner. She’s great to work with and bakes nice cakes!... I have received great compliments about Renée from those attending the Mildmay Job Clubs... Renée has made valued contributions to our key School Policies (such as The Equality and Diversity policy and The Learning and Teaching policy). She is extremely professional, she has a great eye for detail and can empathise with the target audience. She ensures what is written is a true reflection of what is going to happen or what needs to be said whilst encompassing all stakeholders in the process... Renée’s writing is clear and concise and we have used this in our accountancy practice to produce professional letters to our clients that they can understand. All our team are unanimous when we say Renee is a pleasure to work with and we are looking forward to continuing our strong relationship... A professional and well organised outfit that exceeded expectations. Excellent feedback from the client group who asked for more of the same... Renée has a very good reputation among learners and staff. Her learners benefitted from her expertise. She has a very good outcome from her learners. We are very happy to have Renée as part of our team at Redbridge Institute of Adult Education... Renée has a very relaxed style and is able to get on with colleagues at all levels. She is able to engage very diverse audiences when training, which she delivers in a very user-friendly way. I am more than happy to talk to any potential clients…Personable, expert, high integrity... Delegates came away from the training sessions with vital new skills and a better understanding of how they could communicate more clearly… Renée was able to run these sessions in such a way as to make them both informative and enjoyable. I was remarkably impressed with Renee’s professionalism and expertise and can honestly say that she helped us achieve 100% of the targets we had set ourselves. I would have no hesitation in recommending her… Renée demonstrates outstanding oral presentation skills and has an enthusiastic approach to the subject which promotes motivation and participation between learners... Highly effective identification of individuals' learning needs, excellent support provided as appropriate: one-to-one or as a group...
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